Mochila de plomo (2017, Dario Mascambroni)

In Mochila de plomo (Packing Heavy) the drama unfolds slowly. We follow a group of youngsters in a minor city of Argentina. In the night the play soccer, drive home and frolic. Then they go home. We follow Tomás. He hides as he sees his mother drive away with a man. The home is very untidy, unwashed dishes are heaping in the sink. In the morning he cannot find clean clothes. Without breakfast he goes to school, where he is suspended. Too many times he didn't attend classes. Furthermore he didn't wear the school uniform. As he is free, he is loafing through the town. He rings the bell of an auntie, but doesn't stay for food. His mother is stil sleeping when he comes back. Tomás steals money and some cigarettes from her purse. He gets a new, fashionable haircut, then he is involved in a fight and runs away with his best friend Pinchón. At the river they smoke and later they try to shoot with a gun. We learn that Nenino, the man who was responsible for the death of Tomás' father, is released from jail. At the sports club there is going to be a BBQ. Tomás might want to shoot the man. Tomás is eager to learn more about his father, but everybody seems to be unwilling to talk about him. A man at the club house says, that he was the best soccer forward ever. Tomás also visits the house of his grandfather, who says that Tomás' father was involved with bad company. Maybe her was a thief also. At least - 10 minutes before the film finishes - Tomás finally has the encounter with Nenino - aiming at him with the gun.
The absence of grown-ups in this film is striking. The kids are just doing what they like. Adults are not a part of their lives. They only come home for sleeping. The kids also have their own laws and norms.
Packing Heavy is for people who like to follow ordinary life situations that are narrated in an unspectacular manner. Although there is obviously not happening a lot, the potential drama keeps my interest alive.The calm camera work lets us follow the protagonist, as it were participate in his life.
Notes: This text is identical with a review on IMDb. As I am the author, I feel entitled to publish this text here also.
IMDb lists this as a 2018, but the closing credits say  that it is from 2017.

Leonera (2008, Pablo Trapero)

This is a sort of Orange is the New Black, but not with the voyeuristic male viewer in mind. Trapero went to real prisons and filmed with real inmates and not in rebuilt sets in a studio. It's rough and raw, not slick and polished as the US serial. And while I got tired of the US personnel, I felt that I wanted to know more about the destinies of the people in this film.
Julia might or might not have killed her boyfriend; the clues are vague, the statements contradictory, the memories distorted. There was another man in the flat. Julia's boyfriend might have had an affair with that man. Many things remain in doubt. Anyway, Julia is pregnant and in jail she gives birth to a boy. Her mother arrives. She wants to take care, at last she takes away the boy. Julia wants to have custody again. When she is granted  a guarded trip outside to see her child, she profits from the occasion and flees to Paraguay.
A simple story, contemporary social realism, but without preaching and agitating.
9/10